We love the British show Scrapheap Challenge. Reruns of the old Junkyard Wars episodes sometimes appear on satellite TV, and we've seen all of them. The show still runs in the U.K., and the latest episode featured junkyard-derived motorcycles, which the show charitably describes as superbikes. One rule in particular made the challenge rather difficult: no parts originally used on a motorcycle may be used on the scrap-bikes. This made the design of the two-wheelers rather interesting, to say the least. One team decided to go light and nimble with an electric motor and lead-acid batteries. The other team chose to use the engine from a small car. What could be greener than making usable electric machines recycled from discarded junk? Would the powerful internal-combustion engine powered "superbike" grab the victory from the plucky little electric machine? If you'd like to find out, follow the build progress and recaps of the three races which would decide the winner. Thanks for the tip, Willo!

[Source: Channel 4]

In case you are not faimiliar with the term "steampunk", it's a part of the literary sci-fi punk genre. Need more explanation? Consult the all-knowing wiki here. Now that we're all on the same page, check out this electric-steam hybrid motorcycle, built by Tom Sepe. We think that it's pretty cool, although the steam part is a bit misleading. Sure, steam bellows forth from the rear of the bike, but that's for show only. We think it would be epic if the steam boiler powered a turbine which in turn powered the batteries. As it stands, though, this is still an electric motorbike, plus, it throws flames ... and that is cool enough for us. Follow past the break for a short video of the machine in action.

[Source: Steampunk Workshop via The New Cafe Racer Society]